Just got back from the doctor/driving lesson/hairdresser. Damn I’m good at multitasking.

I’m off to Anglesea for a bit. I’ve been invited to both Lorne and Sorrento for NYE, but for the time being I’m going to spend some quality time with the family. Might come back to town on the 1st on the way back to the beach house to check on things and collect some mates for a week down in the surf. After all I only have 2 1/2 weeks left in the country. Oh well.

I’d make a flashy animation showing me surfing and crap, but basically I can’t be assed. The cricket is on afterall. Hmm on a random thought I’m wondering about the fate of this ting once I get overseas – might have to…. CLOSE IT! DUM DUM DUM

I’ll catch you all later….

Pete

Christmas was suprisingly awesome. The general feeling of warmth and goodwill even extended to my cold, cold heart (read the last entry) and I enjoyed myself emmensely. It’s actually a lot of fun to be with family, especially for such an occassion. Christmas dinner was once again at the Windsor hotel, which was amazing – both excellent quality and much more than sufficient quantity. There were probablly 40 or 50 oysters left at the end of the 4 hours, of which I would have had close to half a dozen personally – and I daresay so did many there. The rest of the food had similar amounts left over, and I genuinely hope that that food was given to those less fortunate, although I somehow doubt it.

I’ll upload photos sometime. It was a great day, and I’m now heavier by about the weight of two books, a watch, a 85 litre rucksack and 4 or 5 kilograms of fat, put on by christmas food and wine. Yay for ‘the season to be jolly’!

Pete

So it’s that time of the year again. Time for the world to huddle in close and share in the miracle and wonder of Christmas. At least thats what our obnoxious and overbearing Western culture demands. Of course the place does feel all snuggly thanks to that little sprinkle of holiday spirit.

Or not.

Oh each of those is a news incident to illustrate the irony of christmas time. The second o is my favourite…. poor corgi.

What happened to the REAL christmas?

Pete

God I rock. It took about 2 hours, and 4 stores, and WHAM Christmas shopping was finished. It’s usually so tedious and generally brings out the worst in me, but this year was quite… bearable. Just.

Anyway, yeah – in other news I now have a date booked for my license test, the 7th of January. I hope to god I pass, because I don’t really have much of a contingency plan, with my leaving and all being a week later. Gulp.

I also got travel down and done for the trip. Basically the Dates are Jan 16th from Melbourne to Johannesburg via Singapore for a few hours, then after 3 days in Joburg on orientation theres another plane to catch down to Cape Town which I stay at (or around) for 8 months, leaving on the 30th of September for London, via Frankfurt. I then get 2 1/2 months of random whatever in Europe, but need to be back in London ready to catch a flight home on the 10th of December, home in time for Christmas 2004…. YAY!

Oh well, it’s good that travel is completely out of the way, with my travel visa arriving last week too…. Getting there slowly.

Pete

Well this weekend has been… tiring.

After a chillout Saturday arvo in which I planned to do christmas shopping I got a call from Samo just before dinner asking if he could drive to my place, where we’d walk together to Lil’s for her party, where he could drink, and we’d go home to my place afterwards to sober up (you can’t drive with any alcohol in your blood) before he’d drive home in the morning…. What a plan!

Well it all fell through… I ended up crashing at Lilly’s with about 40 others, and Samo ended up not drinking so he drove home afterall. Bastard. The last thing I remember was starting Pirates of the Carribbean on DVD, then being woken up by Lil’s mum an hour later.

Sunday was spent in an alcohol engorged and sleep deprived daze. I got home at about 1pm, had lunch and went back to Courtney’s where I was meant to be swimming, but instead lounged upstairs (yes I know, very social) before leaving with Cozza and Ed’s girlfriend, Mish to a movie at the Jam Factory. We were met by 4 other girls and saw Peter Pan. It was much more true to the original story than the other recent Pan flicks, but didn’t have as much charm as the Robin Williams one. The cast was fantastic, and the film was visually and aurally very very appealing, but there was something missing.

I slept like a baby Sunday night – 12 hours all told, and spent the remainder of the day cleaning the windows of the house. How exciting…. I still haven’t gotten around to Chrissy presents…

Pete

I just realised my time in melbourne, and Australia for that matter is severly limited. I have to get my license, do a bar course, get organised and buy shit while christmas, new years and a whole swag of going away events go on at the same time. I think me is fucked. For a better idea of just how screwed I am, the departure date is:

Gulp.

Pete

Samo’s was brilliant. His beach house is nuts – most people have a run down shack on the beach that has it’s own distinct little charm, but Sam has the funkiest, most fully decked out beach house of anyone I know. I swear its better than our family home.

I was down there from Monday to Friday (suprise suprise – thats how long i didn’t blog for…) and had a gem of a time. The beach was unneccesary for most of the time, because the flies were shocking and we had a perfectly good salt water pool out the back. The weather was good, the food and company was good, the BEER WAS GREAT and Samo has his license, which came in very useful with the Moke that was down there. A top chillout week – now down into serious pre-chrissy shite.

Pete

Incase you didn´t realise, I haven´t left yet. Bite me. There was a Chrissy concert on tonight that I hada ticket to that my parents reminded me about about 30 seconds before i left. bastardos. HOWEVER by midday tomorrow I should be well on the way to Blairgowrie. YAY for me!

Pete

Laura’s was decent. No more to be said – stfu Sebba. Heh.

I’m off to Blairgowrie (1 hour away, down the Mornington penninsular) for the next couple of days. Sam, Marni and I are apparently catching the train down there tomorrow, as early as possible (hmm considering its 2am now… ) and Lil is apparently catching up with us on Monday after her VCE results come in… Should be a nice couple of days with mates down on the beach. The weather is meant to be 29°C and 36°C (85°F and 97°F respectively) and sunny for Sunday and Monday, so coupled with a bit of luck from the surf gods, I may just have an awesome mini-break!

Catch you guys when I get back…

Pete

SAMO GOT HIS LICENSE!

Now I have a 24 hour-a-day chauffer and party driver guy. He dropped by my place yesterday at about 6pm to drop off a surfboard and offered me the passenger seat to keep him company while he dropped Marni´s board off too. He actually suprised me by being a decent driver, and we got to Hawthorn no probs. On the way back we decided to make a roadtrip out of it, becoming a taxi service for a couple of mates, cruising chapel (in a Chrysler Voyager…. way cool) and getting pizza to drop back home for Richard (little bro). By the time I got home it was after midnight. a 6 hour troupe around suburbia… rock on.

He´s also offered to drive a bunch of us out to Essendon for a party tonight, which is where I must leave to about nowish. No alcohol for you, sammy boy!

Pete